Friday, February 25, 2011

The Rule Haters

Further to the last post about defining the so-called rules of creative writing and working out how to break them effectively, it seems that this question is on a lot of lips and fingertips at the moment.

I thought you might be interested in these recent posts.
Emma Darwin gives her take on tools for writers (stating categorically that they are not 'rules') here.
Claire King has a wonderful spoof post here ...
... which inspired this version from Vanessa Gebbie.

Within those posts and the comments on them, there are yet more versions of various authors' takes on the subject. When I pull all this together, it's going to be interesting to see to what extent there's a general consensus.

UPDATE: See here for Guardian article listing personal versions of the rules according to a very impressive list of sleb authors.

Mind you, the full article is so long it could take valuable time to wade through that would better be spent ... writing. Isn't that the first and only non-negotiable rule?

6 comments:

I guess everyone is different. And, the older and uglier I get, I realise that each piece of work is also different - and demands different application of whatever the rules are. And what applies to me, really does not have to apply to anyone else - hence the laughter.